Another Weekend Review, Oh My!

This weekend in boxing was action-packed and provided enough thrills and surprises to keep the boxing community satisfied.

In the super middleweight (168 Ibs.) division, Edwin “La Bomba” Rodriguez (22-0 15KO) continued his rise to the top with a one-sided eighth-round stoppage victory over fringe contender Jason Escalera (13-1-1 12KO). It was clear from the opening bell that Escalera was way over his head in this fight. Rodriguez quickly overwhelmed him with accurate and hard power punches and pushed him against the ropes, thereby preventing Escalera from escaping the punishment.

Escalera was able to bounce back from the beating in the first round to at least be competitive the following round, but it was still clear that Rodriguez was simply too talented for Escalera. The beating continued throughout the fight until the referee finally stopped the bout after Rodriguez landed a crushing left hook on Escalera’s ear, causing it to bleed.

With this win, Rodriguez would like to step up in competition against the likes of Arthur Abraham and Kelly Pavlik. Meanwhile, Escalera will most likely try to recover from the tremendous beating he took and bounce back.

In a bit of an upset, Vic Darchinyan (38-5-1 27KO) revitalized his career by beating previously undefeated prospect Luis De Valle (16-1 11KO) by a unanimous decision over ten rounds.

Darchinyan was able to pull the inexperienced De Valle into the kind of fight that he loves, rough and hard with plenty of power punches in the air. In fact, Darchinyan was able to land numerous left hooks to the head and body of De Valle, bruising and reddening his face in the process.

De Valle never stopped trying to win however, displaying a will that is rare nowadays. He almost pulled off a miracle in the ninth round, catching Darchinyan with a strong left hook that seriously hurt the Armenian fighter. But it wasn’t enough to finish him off as Darchinyan used his vast experience to survive the round and bounce back in the tenth.

Darchinyan ended up winning a one-sided points decision by scores of 99-91 (twice) and 96-94. He wanted to knock out De Valle but also said that any victory would be necessary. The “Raging Bull” had lost three of his last fights before this, but it should be noted that those losses came against world-class opposition such as Abner Mares, Anselmo Moreno, and Shinsuke Yamanaka. De Valle proved that he can take some hard shots against a world class fighter but he didn’t do enough to make anyone think he’s ready for the best of the division. This fight should be a good learning experience for him though.

Decarie surprised everyone by controlling the fight and out-boxing the game Perez throughout the entire bout. Perez had brief success in the fourth round by landing a good left hook, however Decarie took it well and continued to punish Perez.

The end came with a cross-hook combination that put Perez down and had him on wobbly legs.

Decarie quickly jumped on him, pinning him against the ropes and landing clean right hands until the referee came in to save Perez.

With this victory, Decarie has made an impressive HBO debut and the public will be eager to see him again, especially considering the surprising power he seems to possess. Perez will most likely try to learn from this knockout loss and attempt to work on some defensive and mental flaws in his game.